John Winthrop

John Winthrop (12 January 1587-26 March 1649) was Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for 19 annual terms, serving from 1630 to 1634, 1637 to 1640, 1642 to 1644, and from 1646 to 1649, with John Endecott succeeding him in his last term. He was the founder of the colony with other Puritans, and he would remain its leader for 19 years.

Biography
John Winthrop was born on 12 January 1587 in Edwardstone, Suffolk, England, and in December 1602 he began attending Trinity College. In 1613, he became Lord of the Manor in Groton, and he was deeply involved in the management of the estate. However, in the mid-1620s he decided to emigrate with the Puritans due to persecution by King James I of England and Charles I of England, and in 1630 the colonists arrived in Massachusetts. The Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which would expand to include Boston and Salem. Winthrop preferred diplomacy to war when negotiating with Native Americans, although the Puritans were responsible for persecuting "heretics" in the colonies. Later, he would spread the colonization of New England to Connecticut, giving it a charter in 1635. Winthrop served as Governor of Massachusetts for nineteen years from 1630 to 1649, with brief interruptions; John Endecott succeeded him as governor on his death in 1649.